By Ray Bradbury
Hi, everybody! I have a bit of free time after a shower of homework and I'd like to recommend a very cool story. Now returning with my favorite author. Here comes a story that may make baby-haters like it. This short story comes from a book I previously mentioned "The October Country".
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| Be afraid! I'm all powerful! I'm smirking at you! |
So Alice and David head to their home. Alice carrying the baby in her arms like she should but not motherly enough, just as she was carrying a porcelain figure which bugs David. Once in the house, Alice acts indifferent toward the child even though David makes an effort in to her showing some interest for him. Finally when they let him in his crib and head to their own room, Alice tells him she's afraid of him and thanks him for not getting mad at her. She starts explaining to him that she doesn't believe him to be harmless. The baby hates her and wants her dead. He tries to assure her that that can't be possible. Alice explains to him that she can't trust it. People have rules to know right from wrong. Between David and herself love shields each other from the other. But the baby is so new. He doesn't know right from wrong, knows no rules. He's amoral. David tells her that they would teach him but Alice looks reluctant.
The baby starts crying in the other room and David decides to move the crib to their room much to Alice displease. There the blue-eyes baby gazes from its crib. Lights turn off and David feels Alice rush into her arms shaking. David suddenly remembers he will be out of town for a few days, the help they hired will come on Friday. Alice promises to look after the baby.
David heads to work and away. He's too busy and tired from work when he receives a call. It's Dr. Jeffers who tells him Alice is in the hospital with pneumonia. David rapidly returns and Dr. Jeffers explains to him that she got pneumonia due to exhaustion as she was being too good a mother. When the doctor leaves, Alice moans to David. The baby, the baby wouldn't stop crying at night. He wouldn't let her rest. He was all day still but at night he wouldn't let her sleep. He knew she was weak and drives her to pneumonia. She admits he tried to kill him since the first day he was gone. He tried smothering him against the pillow. She just put him upside-down into the pillow and waited, but when she returned the baby was already in her back smiling. Since then she didn't took care of him at all, she believes the help took care of the baby.
Later on, Dr. Jeffers tells David that it wasn't the babies fault. She just tries to blame her troubles on him. He must shower her in love and be patient. Eventually she will understand the baby is harmless and start to love it. And so David does. Four months have passed and Alice seems to become healthier and her fears less frequent. Yet she would still shake in fear when the door to their bedroom opened a few inches for no reason or thought there was something in the hallway. One night while Alice was sleeping in his arms, he heard the baby crying. He decided to get the milk himself. He walked in the darkness and next to the stairs he slipped with something. He felt himself being thrown to the stairs but somehow managed to grab the railway. He cursed and grabbed the thing he had slipped with. He grew pale. It was a small doll he had got for the baby.
Next morning, when Alice left him in work she told him he couldn't deal with it anymore. She still fears the baby and wants to get away of it for a bit. Have some vacations and leave the baby to someone else. David tells her she will take her with a psychologist and if he decides so they would go on a vacation. David thought for a moment that Alice would start crying but she finally agrees.
While he is at work he starts thinking if he should tell her about what happened last night but decides not to as that would only freak her out more. Accident are after all accidents. He returns home. Everything is quiet, a few cars honking faraway in the avenue. He slides the key into the keyhole and opens the door. Sunlight falls at the bottom of the stairs from the window and into the doll. But he isn't looking at the doll. He rushes to Alice who is at the bottom of the stairs like a twisted doll that doesn't want to play anymore. Ever. He grabs her in his arms, hugs her, calls her. But she's dead. Desperately he rushes to the baby's bedroom and there he finds the baby gasping with his face red as if he had tired himself by crying. He yells to him, "She's dead!," for no reason.
In the meantime he must have called Dr. Jeffers but he can't really remember. He slaps him and tells him to snap out of it. He tells him the baby killed her as he tried last night with him. Dr. Jeffers tells him that it's just a baby but David explains to him that maybe what if one baby out of a million was born different. This one could already think, understand and hate. He could start moving faster than the others. That must be why he was always tired even when they didn't hear him cry. He had exhausted himself by climbing the crib and moving around in the hallway! Even so Dr. Jeffers tells him that even if he was right murder is motivated, what could have motivated a baby to kill their own parents. David told him what the thought. What if the baby hated that it was taken away from its peaceful slumber at birth. Sent out into a cold world where he had to provide, see and compete for himself. He hated Alice for that and his father as well. He wanted them death.
He tells him how he knows now what name he should have. Lucifer. Oh, how he wants to kill him. Dr. Jeffers tells him he needs to sleep. He gives him some sedatives and tells him he will come tomorrow in the afternoon to see him. David goes to his bed and feels his consciousness slip but as he was falling asleep he thought he saw a white thing moving in the hallway.
Dr. Jeffers arrives in the afternoon as promised. He finds the door open, enters and calls for David. No answer but thinks he just saw a white blur somewhere. He leaves his suitcase in the chair next to the door. He can smell gas. He rushes to the second floor and into David's room. He closes the valve next to the door and opens the windows. While coughing he heads to examine David. His body is already cold. He died some hours ago. He ponders in the hallway. David couldn't have committed suicide, the sedatives he gave him would only lose effect now. A thought slipped through his mind. He went to the baby's room and opened the door. He looked at the crib. It's empty. The baby killed David but the door to his room closed and he couldn't get back. But he would find him. He had brought him into this world, he could send it out of it too. Oh, now he was talking just like Alice and David!
He went where he left his suitcase and took something out of it. He saw a white blur in the other room. He walked half a dozen small steps to where he was. He raised his hand to sunlight.
"Look, baby, something pretty, something bright"
A scalpel.
The baby starts crying in the other room and David decides to move the crib to their room much to Alice displease. There the blue-eyes baby gazes from its crib. Lights turn off and David feels Alice rush into her arms shaking. David suddenly remembers he will be out of town for a few days, the help they hired will come on Friday. Alice promises to look after the baby.
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| I thinks that's everyone's case. |
Later on, Dr. Jeffers tells David that it wasn't the babies fault. She just tries to blame her troubles on him. He must shower her in love and be patient. Eventually she will understand the baby is harmless and start to love it. And so David does. Four months have passed and Alice seems to become healthier and her fears less frequent. Yet she would still shake in fear when the door to their bedroom opened a few inches for no reason or thought there was something in the hallway. One night while Alice was sleeping in his arms, he heard the baby crying. He decided to get the milk himself. He walked in the darkness and next to the stairs he slipped with something. He felt himself being thrown to the stairs but somehow managed to grab the railway. He cursed and grabbed the thing he had slipped with. He grew pale. It was a small doll he had got for the baby.
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| I'm sorry! I was just joking when I got you a doll. I know that you're a boy, that's why it's funny. |
Next morning, when Alice left him in work she told him he couldn't deal with it anymore. She still fears the baby and wants to get away of it for a bit. Have some vacations and leave the baby to someone else. David tells her she will take her with a psychologist and if he decides so they would go on a vacation. David thought for a moment that Alice would start crying but she finally agrees.
While he is at work he starts thinking if he should tell her about what happened last night but decides not to as that would only freak her out more. Accident are after all accidents. He returns home. Everything is quiet, a few cars honking faraway in the avenue. He slides the key into the keyhole and opens the door. Sunlight falls at the bottom of the stairs from the window and into the doll. But he isn't looking at the doll. He rushes to Alice who is at the bottom of the stairs like a twisted doll that doesn't want to play anymore. Ever. He grabs her in his arms, hugs her, calls her. But she's dead. Desperately he rushes to the baby's bedroom and there he finds the baby gasping with his face red as if he had tired himself by crying. He yells to him, "She's dead!," for no reason.
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| You're right. I should try throwing them into the stairs. |
He tells him how he knows now what name he should have. Lucifer. Oh, how he wants to kill him. Dr. Jeffers tells him he needs to sleep. He gives him some sedatives and tells him he will come tomorrow in the afternoon to see him. David goes to his bed and feels his consciousness slip but as he was falling asleep he thought he saw a white thing moving in the hallway.
Dr. Jeffers arrives in the afternoon as promised. He finds the door open, enters and calls for David. No answer but thinks he just saw a white blur somewhere. He leaves his suitcase in the chair next to the door. He can smell gas. He rushes to the second floor and into David's room. He closes the valve next to the door and opens the windows. While coughing he heads to examine David. His body is already cold. He died some hours ago. He ponders in the hallway. David couldn't have committed suicide, the sedatives he gave him would only lose effect now. A thought slipped through his mind. He went to the baby's room and opened the door. He looked at the crib. It's empty. The baby killed David but the door to his room closed and he couldn't get back. But he would find him. He had brought him into this world, he could send it out of it too. Oh, now he was talking just like Alice and David!
He went where he left his suitcase and took something out of it. He saw a white blur in the other room. He walked half a dozen small steps to where he was. He raised his hand to sunlight.
"Look, baby, something pretty, something bright"
A scalpel.
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| Remember an apple a day keeps a doctor away. |
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